Scrapbooking to Brainstorm Ideas

You may ask: "How do you brainstorm ideas for a story?"

Well, sometimes, when I'm writing a story, and it doesn't require a time limit (like my workshop pieces for my writing courses), I would generate ideas by gathering as many visual aids as possible. In other words, I would find myself scrapbooking in my writing journals, so that I have my ideas down, and I can actually see ON PAPER what I'm visualizing.

I used to have a monthly subscription for Vogue and Allure magazines, and I remember flipping through the pages, and seeing the many colors and visuals that they had. But then, I decided to cancel my subscriptions, because the magazines were taking up too much space in my room; so, I went through the magazines to see what pages I wanted to keep, and which ones to toss.

Though, when I started brainstorming for Dolphin Princess, I came up with the idea of scrapbooking in my journal. I would cut out an image or piece of a picture from the magazines, and I would either glue or tape them to the pages of my journal, so that my ideas could stay fresh in there. I found myself saving and attaching pictures of models and colors into my journal, because I wanted to capture the realness of my characters. For example, for my main character Silhouette, I imagined a shy youth who was oblivious to her true self, and how graceful she would be when she finds out the truth and embraces her destiny. And with these cut-outs, I had my concept sketches of my characters, and the notes I would make.
Color was also something that I would use in my brainstorming. If I saw a magazine page of a color that I liked, then I would add it to the journal by cutting out that color and taping/gluing it with my notes and sketches. And this was how I did my cover art, was use colors from magazines to create collages for my covers (which I will talk about in a future post).

This taught me that there was no right or wrong way to brainstorm ideas for a story. It can be sketching, scrapbooking, or even just jotting down your ideas. If you have an idea for a story, go for it.

TO BUY MY BOOK: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dolphin-princess-veronica-gonzalez/1129202183

Veronica Gonzalez